Innovative design of survey camp course for civil engineering program

Abstract

This paper seeks to present the innovative design of the Survey Camp course for the civil engineering program at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The Survey Camp is designed as a ten day on-campus training which consists of surveying activities such as levelling, traversing and detailing. It also introduces the usage of the latest surveying tools and technologies used in typical civil engineering projects. This course allows the first year students to experience practicing engineers’ working environment in relation to surveying activities. The learning environment of the Survey Camp was converted from the traditional learning approach to student-centered learning via project-based learning since 2012 with several improvements and modifications. Furthermore, the implementation of Project Based Learning as the teaching and learning approach enhances the students’ knowledge and soft skills. Problem solving skills pertaining to civil engineering tasks and the development of soft skills such as team-working, leadership and communication skills are addressed. Assessments and feedbacks from the academic start and students were used as tools to evaluate the outcomes of the course. Recently, this course has produced a module and online assessment tools. This module and assessment tools have also been implemented at other universities, namely, UTHM (assessment tools since 2015), UMP (module, 2012 and assessment tools since 2016) and currently at UNIMAS (assessment tools). The implementation of the project based learning as a learning environment in conducting the Survey Camp course has successfully shown that the students’ attainment in developing the selected engineering professional and soft skills is enhanced.